Air Arabia's inflight systems and processes had been in place for some time, with little integration between bookings, catering operations, onboard crew processes, post-flight logistics and financial reconciliation. Some elements were digital, but many back-end processes continued to be paper-based and were therefore inefficient and incapable of being scaled up across our growing network. Pre-orders, for example, were not part of the booking flow and any such orders placed were manually tracked up to the point of onboard delivery.
They found that there were many instances of unfulfilled orders and errors. There were issues in the post-flight reconciliation, especially given the silos of operations and paperwork involved. The result? Frustration, but also a tremendous wastage of resources and manpower. Ultimately, this also prevented crew from delivering the quality of service that was expected by their passengers.
"What we needed was a partner who understood our needs, challenges and market demands and could cure our pain points and improve our systems, while saving costs, reducing waste and driving revenue. We got a digital solution suite that delivered all of that, giving us significantly more efficiency across our operations and setting solid foundations for the airline's future.” Waqas Javed, Head of Finance and Sales, ALPHA Group"
Waqas Javed, Finance and Commercial Manager, Alpha Flight Services
Industry
Airline
Partner
dnata
Use case
Inflight catering
Based in the UAE, Air Arabia is the region’s first and largest Low Cost Carrier (LCC), serving over 170 destinations spread across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe. Air Arabia sees digitalisation as a key element in its growth ambitions.
customers are demanding more interaction, more choice and Air Arabia wanted to initiate pre-order to give them more control over their journey.
a digital platform enables Air arabia to carry onboard precisely what is needed, dramatically reducing weight, waste and loss.
by replacing traditional systems cumbersome inefficiencies will be removed from Air Arabia's operations and improved integration allows for better processes.
In adopting Omnevo’s digital solution to radically develop its on-board and pre-order catering program, Air Arabia gained powerful competitive advantages built on significantly higher operational performance, greater crew efficiencies and engagement, stronger sustainability, and a new quality standard in passenger service.
The Omnevo team developed a digital program to radically enrich on-board and pre-order catering programs for Air Arabia, including a digital, end-to-end integration solution incorporating everything from flight scheduling, seat upgrades and inflight meals to pre-order, boutique shopping, buy-on-board and crew meals.
This modular ecosystem with low entry cost offers the industry’s only seamless, end-to-end solution, including the capacity to generate real-time analytics throughout the entire supply-chain. Crucial for the analysis of performance gains, the solution incorporates precise identification of what is consumed, purchased, wasted and lost - creating significant cost-savings and customer service improvements.
The platform’s comprehensive management functionality gave Air Arabia’s managers full control while enabling shared clarity and efficiency across all departments - creating smoother, stronger efficiencies from end-to-end.
The inflight Catering process is among the most startling operational transformations achieved through the Omnevo solution. The clumsy, time-consuming process of using a paper-based system manually aligned with seat numbers (and information shared by email) was replaced by an online system that automatically logs pre-ordered meals by passenger name and seat number - with all the information fully updated and instantly accessible by the onboard crew immediately boarding is completed.
The new Omnevo ePOS system created a series of onboard performance gains - including enhancements to passenger service, time-saving functions for crew, and the power to drive stronger ancillary revenue streams.
The user-friendly system made crew training a fast and effective process with a system configured precisely to Air Arabia’s needs, including full control to modify or make minor adjustments to functionalities – thereby avoiding the previous time-consuming process of requiring third-party input for even minor edits, for example.
Omnevo’s training program inducted around 600 staff within just three weeks through a blend of online, group and individual sessions. This included five team sessions of two-hours duration, with additional on-demand support available from a summary video and a digital user manual (15 pages) was given to each crew member, with a copy also incorporated with the on-board system. All training was implemented seven days before the system went 'live', ensuring that crew were familiarized with the system and delivered a seamless start up, precisely to time and budget.
Omnevo further protected the initial operational phase by providing extensive guidance and support, including analyzing the airline’s existing processes and modifying the new ERP system to enhance operational performance and optimize integration, efficiency and speed.
From transformative improvements in some areas to system-wide incremental gains, the Omnevo solution accumulates new efficiencies across the airline’s whole operations system.
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